Chi chi ku ku—
A yellow sports car slowly stood up and turned into a towering robot.
Banner stared wide-eyed at the projected image, amazed. 'How did anyone even come up with turning a car into a robot? This idea is really out of this world.'
Tony raised his eyebrows, interested. This was a pretty good concept. "How about I design a Stark product that transforms into a robot? That'd make for a great product placement."
"Then why not make all the Transformers into Stark Industries products?" Tony stroked his chin, the businessman in him coming out.
"We could, but how many types of cars does Stark Industries even have?"
"More than enough." Tony's business instincts told him this movie would be a hit. Product placement was perfect—even if they didn't sell those car models now, they could make them later if the movie did well.
"Happy to work together. This Transformers movie is definitely going to take the world by storm." Liu A'dou was confident. "You handle the special effects, I'll take care of everything else. We can finish shooting in two months, then promote for a few more months, and the greatest movie of the year will be born."
"Happy to work with you." Tony figured he was doing Pepper a favor anyway. Jarvis usually had nothing to do, and only used a tiny part of his functions. Doing special effects was a piece of cake.
Another thing settled, though they still needed a detailed contract for profit sharing—box office, car rights, and fees for using those car models in toys. Not like Professor X, who'd sacrifice everything for mutants; Tony was all about business, and every contract clause had to be in place.
Both sides sent their legal reps to finalize the deal.
Liu A'dou also decided to bring Kailan and Ben into the film crew. They'd practice their skills while filming, plus Kailan needed to learn English. The female lead, Elsa, skipped school for this too. This time, she'd play a helpless girl with no powers at all. Liu A'dou called it 'The Ice Queen experiencing normal life'—showing what it's like when mutants have no abilities, which would be a big talking point later.
Filming started right away, everyone super busy.
The company stuff was left to Chu Yuxuan and Max—one an intel agent, the other a special agent. Both could handle running the company.
After the invasion event, the whole world was talking about building space defenses. Some wanted to set up a ground-to-sky missile network with no blind spots. Others talked about planting nuclear mines outside the moon's orbit. There were even people suggesting super-powered laser weapons covering up, down, left, and right on near-Earth orbit.
Of course, none of this could be built overnight, especially without any blueprints. Still, every government was looking forward to their own space defense systems.
S.H.I.E.L.D., with its mountain of black tech, got special attention too. The U.S. government expected someone to come up with a solid emergency plan to protect America from attacks from space.
S.H.I.E.L.D. was really busy these days, but Ada finally got a break. She hadn't had a day off in half a year, especially after the invasion—she'd been run ragged. Now that everything was settled, she asked for a vacation.
Honestly, Liu A'dou didn't like S.H.I.E.L.D.'s system—low pay, little time off, and risking your life all the time. What's the point? If Ada didn't find the job exciting, Liu A'dou would've told her to quit ages ago. He could only chat with her through Microcosmos every day—he was really losing his mind. Liu A'dou wanted to do something more intimate.
Ada came back, and Liu A'dou brought his wife straight to the set—there were hotels all around anyway.
It was Ada's first time joining one of Liu A'dou's movies, and her first time seeing a bunch of people acting in front of a green screen. It was pretty fun—even though there was nothing there, the actors made it look real. Ada also met the two apprentices Liu A'dou had mentioned before, each playing a Jedi and a Sith.
Ben played the Jedi because he had more lines. Kailan played the Sith—less dialogue. The two of them would have an awesome lightsaber duel in the movie. They didn't have real lightsabers yet, but it didn't stop them from learning swordplay. Liu A'dou even invented his own Jedi sword style.
"So this is a lightsaber?" Ada looked at the 'flashlight' in her hand. This weapon was way too advanced. She curiously turned it on, and a beam of light shot out. "Whoa!" Ada acted like a startled girl—the lightsaber was just too wild for her. "Looks like you made a lot of cool stuff."
"This lightsaber goes together with the Force training method. With the Force, you can make up for Microcosmos's lack of raw power. When you reach the Force's highest level, even reversing a planet's rotation won't be hard."
Ada honestly had no idea how many things Liu A'dou actually knew. She understood the benefits of the Force, of course. With the Force, you could move an entire car, a train carriage, or even a passenger jet. Using Microcosmos, you could punch these things and send them flying, but that would probably wreck them. The Force was different. You could move stuff and keep it perfectly intact—like a real invincible powerhouse.
"The lightsaber is cool, but it's not for me, at least not right now." Ada still preferred sticking to what a special agent was supposed to do.
Liu A'dou didn't push her. Ada wanted to focus on mastering Microcosmos, and he supported that. "Ada-jie, lately your news has taken the number one spot on the search rankings."
"Really? I've been so busy, I haven't had any time to get online."
Liu A'dou pulled up all the news about "Scorpion Woman" for his wife. "Look, these are all uploaded by New York residents. During the battle, you totally stole the spotlight. You were even more popular than the Avengers."
"Is the mysterious golden-armored person a member of the Avengers?" The golden-armored person had more photos taken than any Avenger, including HD close-ups. That golden armor shining under the sun stunned everyone. It was flashier than Iron Man, stronger than Hulk, as mysterious as Thor, as graceful as Black Widow, and had Hawkeye's long-range skills too.
The most viral video was the moment the golden-armored hero made that unbelievable throw. Some citizen captured the whole thing. There was even a short intro below the video, telling the story behind it—how Scorpion Woman showed up, and then what happened in the clip.
The video's view count kept climbing. Tons of people commented about seeing that golden streak in the sky, and a lot swore they saw Scorpion Woman's spear. Some even posted pictures, even though all you could see was a bit of gold.
"Scorpion Woman—babe, that's your superhero name now," Liu A'dou said.
"Not bad." Ada liked helping people. She used to not have the power, but things were different now.
But Liu A'dou felt a bit worried. "Ada-jie, you're working and being a superhero. I'm just afraid you'll get too tired."
Ada blushed. Her husband was still just as caring. "Don't worry. I won't turn into Scorpion Woman all the time. Only when it's really dangerous will I put on the Gold Cloth. Relax. I'll take care of myself."
"Good." Liu A'dou pulled her into his arms. "I just don't want you being too kind and overdoing it. Us being happy comes first."
Ada listened to his strong heartbeat and smiled. Suddenly she remembered Elsa. "When I came back today, I saw Elsa looked upset. Is it because of the other Saints?"
"Yeah." Liu A'dou nodded. Elsa was still pushing him to find all the Saints, and she'd now reached the beginner level of the Seventh Sense, which made her even more sure the time was right.
"What are you planning to do? Now you're teaching people the Force too—do you even have the energy to teach Saints?" Ada realized she might be pressing him a bit. "Do you have any Saint candidates now? Or have you just been ignoring the Saints?"
Uh... Liu A'dou gave an awkward laugh and tried to bluff. "Of course I haven't ignored it. I actually picked a few candidates. I'm just not sure if they'll want to join."
"Really? How many candidates?" Ada didn't buy it. She knew he'd just say whatever if he got cornered.
"Alright, honestly, there's just one." Liu A'dou actually did have a candidate. "Harry Osborn, the young master of Osborn Enterprises. He's a good kid."
"A rich kid, huh?" Ada didn't need him to explain further. She already knew what Liu A'dou was thinking—he wanted to talk Harry into joining, then make use of his influence. "My A'dou, my good husband, what exactly is going on in your head?"
"I knew I couldn't fool you." Liu A'dou grinned. "Harry will thank me. If I don't step in, he'll go down the criminal path sooner or later. Being his mentor can change his fate."
"You always know everything, huh?" Ada was used to Liu A'dou's sixth sense, but she still couldn't help being surprised.
Liu A'dou said, "Ada-jie, how about this—I still have to teach two alien students, so why don't you teach Harry Microcosmos?"
"Me?" Ada was surprised.
"Yeah. Ada-jie, your Microcosmos is already at the peak of the Seventh Sense. Maybe by teaching you'll break through to the Eighth Sense. Give it a try. Harry has talent, and while teaching him you'll get to review your own skills."
"I didn't do a great job when I taught Elsa," Ada said, worried she wasn't a good teacher.
"Come on, that was a special case. And you did really well. Elsa just reached the Seventh Sense, right? It's only been about a year—not that long." Liu A'dou looked at Ada and encouraged her. "Jie, you can do it."
Ada finally nodded. She agreed to teach Harry.